After blasting PM-backed, Otzma Yehudit merger in 2019, AIPAC declines to do so again

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has declined to comment on Wednesday’s merger agreement between the extremist Otzma Yehudit party, the anti-LGBT Noam party and the Religious Zionism party that was midwifed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2019, AIPAC broke from its typical aversion from commenting on internal Israeli politics, issuing a statement after Otzma Yehudit merged with Jewish Home and National Union, then too at Netanyahu’s behest.

Then, AIPAC tweeted that it had “a longstanding policy not to meet with members of this racist and reprehensible party.”

In that tweet the pro-Israel lobbying group also agreed with a statement from the American Jewish Committee, which said the “views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel.”

Asked if AIPAC wanted to comment on the matter in light of Wednesday’s merger, which places Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir in the No. 3 spot on the joint list and in a better position to enter the Knesset than he was three years ago, a spokesman for the group said it would not be commenting further on the matter.